In today's sophisticated computing devices such as mobile computing devices, smartphones, tablet computers, and wearable computing devices many internal sensors are employed within the computing device. Some of these sensors aid determination of contextual conditions for the computing device. Other sensors aid determination of geographical location for the computing device. In this regard, some sensors are better suited for indoor use than outdoor use and vice versa.
Users of these sophisticated computing devices have come to rely heavily on the accuracy, robustness, and availability of these sensors within their computing devices whether they actively know it or not. There exists a wide range of different sensors and sensory types, for example: global navigation satellite system (GNSS) sensors such as global positioning satellite (GPS) sensors, global navigation satellite system (GLONASS) sensors and the like, and short range wireless sensors such as WiFi sensors, near field communication (NFC) sensors, Bluetooth sensors, radio frequency identification (RFID) sensors and the like. In addition there can be sensors involving motion such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, as well as other micro-electro-mechanical system devices (MEMS). Imaging sensors, microphone sensors, and proximity sensors may also be employed within a sophisticated computing device. Further, a sensor may include a modem, a transceiver, a processor, and the like.
Furthermore, computing devices are typically battery operated and, as such, power consumption is an important feature in marketing these devices. Many computing devices are capable of entering a low power state to conserve battery power. During the low power state, most of the resources of the computing device are powered down resulting in limited capability of the device. Accordingly, there is a need for improved techniques to allow for low power management of multiple sensors in an integrated chip architecture for a computing device while, for instance, the computing device is in a low power state. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present disclosure will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying figures and the foregoing technical field and background.